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Special Counsel Jack Smith has filed a new indictment against Donald Trump, narrowing the scope of claims against the former president after the Supreme Court ruled that he was immune from conduct that were official acts.
A new grand jury again indicted Trump on four counts of conspiracy and obstruction to remain in power after the 2020 presidential election.
Those four counts are the same as those filed last year, but what is missing are some of the allegations to back them up. That includes claims that Trump sought to pressure Justice Department officials as he challenged the election results.
Read the new Trump indictment.
“The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions in Trump v. United States,” Smith and other attorneys wrote in a court filing today.
The indictment continues to claim that Trump attempted to enlist Vice President Mike Pence in the effort to overturn the election results, but suggests that effort was political, not part of a president’s official acts.
“In furtherance of these conspiracies, the defendant tried — but failed — to enlist the Vice President, who was also the Defendant’s running mate and, by virtue of the Constitution, the President of the Senate who plays a ceremonial role in the January 6 certification proceeding,” the indictment stated.
Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official; and conspiracy against rights.
The case had been on hold as the Supreme Court took up Trump’s claim that he had broad immunity from prosecution. The justices, in a 6-3 decision in June, handed Trump a partial victory by deeming him immune from official acts as president, leaving it up to the lower court to decide just what aspects of the case fell into that category. But Trump’s biggest victory was in slowing down the case so that it won’t go to trial before the November election, if it reaches that point at all.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has scheduled a status conference in the case for Sept. 5.
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